#031 - Your Book is Someone’s Solution

Welcome back to this episode of Hit Splits. My name is Shelly Hits, and in this episode, I want to talk about how your book is someone's solution to their problem. And it's really hard sometimes to wrap our minds around selling, selling our books and building a platform. And we don't want to be pushy or we don't want people to think that, you know, were greedy or prideful or all of these things. And yet I had a coach that told me years ago, selling is helping. Selling is helping. Your book is helping someone else is solving the problem for someone. And I wanted to share this story that I heard today. It's from the book the Obstacles the Way by Ryan Holiday. And I have not actually read this book. I just heard about this story, so I wanted to tell it to you here to bring home this point. It's about George Clooney, and he's a very popular US Actor, if you don't know who he is. But he spent his early years in Hollywood getting rejection after rejection at auditions. He was feeling desperate that he needed to get a role, that he needed to get his career off the ground. And it was as if he was seeing those auditions as the solution to his problem. You know, he wanted the producers and directors to like him, but they didn't, you know, and it hurt. And he blamed the system for not seeing how good he was. So this whole perspective is this viewpoint that, you know, many times we come at, even when we're selling our books, you know, this feeling of like, I need to sell my book. I need to. I need to get more reviews. I need to do this. And that this person is the answer to my problem, is the solution to my problem. And Seth Godin says many times we subconsciously submit to this tyranny of being picked. We're thinking, like, we need to be the ones that are picked. And it's interesting because Ryan Holiday said everything changed for Clooney when he tried a new perspective. He realized that casting is an obstacle for producers, too. They need to find someone, and they're all hoping that the next person to walk in the room is the right somebody. They were looking for a solution to their problem, and auditions were a chance to solve their problem and not his. So from Clooney's new perspective, he was that solution. He wasn't going to be someone groveling for a shot. He was someone with something special to offer. He was the answer to their prayers. And that is what he began to project in his auditions. Not exclusively his acting skills, but that he was the right person for the job. He was the man for the job. He understood what the casting directors and producers were looking for in that specific role, and he would deliver it in each and every situation. And so with that change in his perspective, he began landing roles. He began to become the person that they needed for that specific role. He began to become the solution to their problem. And in return, they were the answer to his prayers, too, Right? They were the solution to his problem. But he didn't approach it in that way first. He didn't come with that feeling of desperation. He came with knowing he. He had something special to offer. And so I've mentioned this many times, and in Christian Book academy, we have a lesson on this. But when you are selling, one of the most important things is to believe in the product you're selling. And so with your book, you have to start with believing it is the solution to someone else's problem. It will be the thing that helps to impact someone's life, that God will use it, or that will entertain them, or that will help them to learn something new. And if you have any hesitation that your book is.

The solution to your target audience's problem or that you really believe in your book, take a moment and say, where is that coming from? If you have not gotten your book professionally edited, you know, that might be a step you need to take. You know, you could, when you independently publish, you can always update your book, and so you can get it professionally edited. So you're proud of the product that you've created. If it's. If the formatting's wonky or something's off, you may need to hire someone to do that, or you may want to get a different book cover. Your book cover is going to be one of the things that really helps you to sell your book. So, you know, those are all things that you could update if you want. I mean, if you're. If you're feeling that catch in your spirit, but if you are proud of what you've created, if you know it is your best work and that it's something that really can help people, then I want you to start using this perspective and start praying for the right person at the right time to buy the right book. You know, especially if you have more than one book, like we do, but that the right person at the right time would read your book, be impacted by. By it, that it would be the solution to their problem, it would be the answer to their prayers, and that you would be excited to market your book because you know, there are people right now waiting for your book and waiting to be impacted by your book. See how this begins to change marketing, instead of it being drudgery and, oh, I have to put myself out there and I have to, you know, you know, do this and that. No, like, there are people right now that your book is the solution to their problems. And then that gets exciting. That gets, you know, your passion for marketing the book and doing more to get it into more hands. So I hope that this has helped you a little bit. I just thought this was an interesting story about George Clooney and that we can apply it to our books as well. And I will talk to you in the next episode. Bye. Bye.